Most cardio we do promotes bad posture. Jogging = stress on quads, anterior pelvic tilt. Stationary bike/bike is even worse, as it’s all quads AND you’re hunched over - anterior pelvic tilt and thoracic kyphosis.
Is there any cardio that really hits the posterior chain and makes your glutes, lats, mid-back and hamstrings do all the work?
Apparently backstroke swimming does this (saw it in the most recent blog-post on Ben Bruno’s website), but there is little leg involvement.
Rowing would hit the mid-back, but also shorten the hip flexors.
So is there any cardio activity that hits the glutes, hamstings, mid-back and lats all in one whilst helping to stretch out the T-spine and hip flexors? You spend a while in a fixed pattern of movement when doing cardio - it would be surely a good idea to make sure that is a healthy movement pattern…
OP, as a cyclist, you’re 100% wrong saying biking is all quads. maybe if your riding around the park really slow, you wont feel any soreness the next day. TRAIN on a bike, and you’ll be sore EVERYWHERE!! i have perfect posture, and thats after 20 years competitive cycling and 20 years competitive running.yesterday i rode 75 miles very hard on a rolling circut, and this morning i was sore head to toe…hamstrings, quads,lower back, abs, shoulders…
only time i’m not sore from the previous days training, is if i rode an ez recovery hour or so…most people dont know how hard cycling is… just like running. go out and jog an ez few miles you’re not going to be sore. do a hard 10 miles on a x-country course, or run 8 half mile intervals hard, you’ll be dead, and sore. EVERYWHERE.
Sprints with out a doubt. Have you ever checked out the asses of the female Olympic sprinters… God I can’t even watch that shit with out having to go fuck my wife immediately after I mean DAMN.
Oh and high Rep KB Swings of all sorts, sled dragging, long distance wheel barrow push( this hurts so bad after a quarter with about 150lbs) get a friend and see how fast you two can get it two miles its miserable.
I agree with kettlebell swings. Make sure you get the technique right so it is a hip-dominant movement rather than a squat and it will smoke your posterior chain.
I don’t count, but queue mp3 together to progress in minutes.
With a slow rythm and good breathing pattern, this is a nice workout to start the day.
Depending on your technique and bodytpye, back and legs are hit differently, of course.
My sp. erectors are pretty pumped afterwards.
Just pick a stance that won’t kill your knees.
If you feel them 2-3 minutes in, you’re either doing something wrong or the kneejoint needs more warmup.
The OP sounds like a KB advertising.
I would suggest a loaded quality backpack it will transfer most of the load to the hips.
Walk up/downhill
Walk up/downhill going backward
alternate with up/downstairs, reverse doing it backward
squat with backpack
lunges forward
lunges sliding back
circuit: squats/push-ups/squats/pull-ups/squats/abs
goblets, also squats with dumbbells on shoulders, erect spine, GHR
If your goal is fat control, eating real foods(not process)
Surely sprints will only hit your posterior chain if you’ve got perfect sprinting technique perfected by years of sprint coaching with coaches that know your precise biomechanics? Also, good sprinters tend to have certain proportions like long limbs and a short torso, kind of the opposite of my build.
If a scrub like me (who hasn’t any formal sprint coaching and can make any move quad-dominant) tried to sprint would it still hit the glutes and posterior chain?
Sprints are great but aren’t exactly what I would call cardio. Quite the opposite.
Try sumo squats for reps (I mean not dozens but eventually hundreds of reps).
It’s a very easy variation and it hits the pc reliably.
And don’t think of doing them with the same tempo and rythm as you usually do with exercising in the gym.
It’s a bit slower, and your breathing should be strong.
Of course, you can always change stance every 50-100 reps.
[quote]spk wrote:
OP, as a cyclist, you’re 100% wrong saying biking is all quads. maybe if your riding around the park really slow, you wont feel any soreness the next day. TRAIN on a bike, and you’ll be sore EVERYWHERE!! i have perfect posture, and thats after 20 years competitive cycling and 20 years competitive running.yesterday i rode 75 miles very hard on a rolling circut, and this morning i was sore head to toe…hamstrings, quads,lower back, abs, shoulders…
only time i’m not sore from the previous days training, is if i rode an ez recovery hour or so…most people dont know how hard cycling is… just like running. go out and jog an ez few miles you’re not going to be sore. do a hard 10 miles on a x-country course, or run 8 half mile intervals hard, you’ll be dead, and sore. EVERYWHERE. [/quote]
Co-sign.
OP, you might want to try uphill biking. I don’t know how’s the terrain in the city you live in, here in Rio we have more than a few paved roads going up cliffs, which makes things easier. Trust me, this will fry your hamstrings/glutes while adding some serious mass to your lower body.
Thanks for all suggestions, but I just feel cardio is less mind-numbing when you’re ‘going somewhere’ - even if it is ‘simulated going somewhere’ (ie. treadmill/stair master). I just think doing hundreds, even thousands of reps of bodyweight squats is too much.
So, to summarize, for ‘going somewhere’ cardio to hit the posterior chain, so far we have;
Backstroke swimming, uphill running, stair-master, uphill cycling(?), sled pulling (hard to get access to, though)
For stationary exercises with low weight, thousands of reps, we have;
More suggestions would still be appreciated. Also, I’m sure quad-dominant people like myself will find a way to turn stair-masters, uphill running and stuff like that into completely quad-dominant movements, even when thinking of cues such as ‘pull through the heel’…etc… Is there any fool-proof way to do them, or otherwise do cardio that hits the posterior chain?
My job requires me to frequently and repeatedly drag moderately heavy stuff (trees and such) over varying distances and often uphill as fast as I reasonably can. I find this to be very posterior chain dominant, excellent cardio and it is “going somewhere”.
Go to a tire shop. Get a big, old tire for free or next to. Drill a hole in the tread. Attach a rope/strap/handle etc. with a eye bolt and some washers. Load it up with heavy free stuff (i.e. rocks, sandbags etc.). Drag it around. Profit. Brief google search will yield simple instructions. While you’re at said tire shop get some old inner tubes for free and turn them into sand bags/goat bags.
Again, brief google search will show you how. Use goat bags for a variety loaded carries, swings etc. This will cost less than $30 and provide great training value while looking reasonably badass.
Or get a job dragging trees and such. I cannot really recommend this, though.
I can’t speak for the others here,
but in my opinion there’s no way oly lifts or deadlifts done for thousands of reps can be good anywhere south of the north pole.
However, Bethaks and similarly executed (weightless!important!) squats work and are time tested.
If you have more questions regarding these, shoot.
I’m also no convinced anyone even implied kettlebell swings have to be done with such high reps.
Very high reps works with certain squats because you work up to a really manageable rhythm with an exercise that uses your body’s strongest muscles. You basically use a cheat technique to make it even more smooth and easy.
How could you do 100 snatches that way? WHat could possibly be the use?
I cannot personnally attest for ANY WEIGHTED EXERCISE done for more then 100 reps in one set. (let me make a wild guess, the others can’t, too)
It’s probably NOT a good idea.
Are you looking for cardio that you can use to strengthen your posterior chain, or are you just looking for cardio that isn’t totally quad dominant?
If it’s the former, then why are you using cardio to work your back and hips? Load some plates on a bar and do deadlifts until you puke.
If you’re just looking for cardio that isn’t quad dominant and doesn’t lend itself to poor posture (like the elliptical), just… don’t use bad posture? You don’t have to bend over on a Stairmaster for it to work.
TL;DR: Stationary rowing, barbell complexes, regular cardio machines but just don’t use bad posture
Ok, just some points - doesn’t a treadmill (even an incline treadmill) take the glutes entirely out of the equation, because the movement of the belt pulls your leg back (extends it at the hip joint) so your glutes don’t have to? Unlike in normal walking where they DO have to.
Also, when using the stair machine, wouldn’t you need to take comically deep steps in order to involve the glutes? You would have to step so deep (or so high) that your thigh is way above parallel, and I don’t think most stair machines allow for steps that big, do they?
These complications would lead to both incline treadmill and stair master machines being very quad-dominant?